Smoker

One time, he drank a cloudy drink slipped to him by the Vulture and woke up as a cat on his own. Then he started telling everyone about it and pestered the whole house.

I just had to realize that the game is everything that surrounds me. "Having said that, I suddenly realized that the game encompasses more than just image. It was a very appropriate word; when I caught it, I realized I'd been searching for something like this for a long time. A word that would hold the key to what was happening in the House. I simply had to realize that the game is everything that surrounds me. It's impossible for one group to be all obedient bores, and another all unruly lunatics. It's impossible. So, at some point, someone intended it this way. Why? That's another question.

I even broke out in a sweat from my own insight. My appetite had completely vanished. One day, I fantasized, they, completely bored out of their minds, came up with a script for the Game and swore to follow it under any circumstances. Each their own role, each their own place in the game. And so they've lived ever since. Pretending and adhering to the script. Sometimes eagerly, sometimes half-heartedly, but always and everywhere, especially in the dining hall, where there are more spectators. Some—like the Pheasants—played themselves to the point of losing their humanity.

“In three days I learned:

play poker;

play checkers;

sleep sitting;

eat at night;

bake potatoes on an electric stove;

smoking other people's cigarettes;

"Don't ask what time it is" I never learned:

brew black coffee without spilling it on the stove;

play the harmonica;

crawl so that everyone, looking at me, doesn’t grimace;

don't ask unnecessary questions

Envious of the Lord because of his beauty Has complexes about appearance and physical strength Considers himself a whiner, a weakling, and a "typical pheasant"

After his release in the Outside, he becomes a famous artist

Suffers from a severe form of depression due to the loss of the ability to walk, the divorce of his parents, being placed in a boarding school and living in a boarding school

After becoming disabled, he was placed in a boarding school. His parents, however, were the least toxic of all the parents of the children in the home, despite the fact that his parents were divorced. After graduation, he became one of the few who lived with his family.

Thin, brown eyes, dark hair. Nothing remarkable about his appearance, not handsome, but not ugly either.

The skeptic, the only one in the house who doesn't believe in magic, tries to find a scientific explanation for everything. He pesters everyone with questions and understands little about the house.

The Cigarette Smoking Man is one of the book's key characters. Initially, he is assigned to the Fourth Group (one of the most unusual in the House), although he previously belonged to the Pheasants, a group known for its conformism and rule-following.

The transition from Pheasants to the Fourth comes as a shock to him—he finds himself in a world where different laws apply.

Relationships with others. Gradually builds connections with the inhabitants of the Fourth, including the Lord, the Blind, and the Black.

Perception of the House. One of the few who acutely senses the House's strangeness and irrationality.

Choice. In the finale, like all the inhabitants, he faces a choice: leave for the Outside World or stay in the House. The Smoker chooses to leave, but the House continues to influence his life.

The Smoker embodies:

type of visionary artist;

conflict between the creative personality and the system;

search for identity;

an attempt to preserve individuality in the context of a rigid social hierarchy.

Transformation. From a passive observer, he gradually becomes a more active participant in events.

Creativity as salvation. Drawing helps him stay sane in the atmosphere of the House.

Understanding the nature of the House. By the end, he begins to better understand the mechanisms of this strange place, although not completely.

Introvert, prone to reflection.

Feels like a stranger in the House.

Has difficulty adapting to the harsh rules of the institution's internal world.

Has a rich imagination.

Inclined to philosophical reflections on the nature of reality

The nickname "Smoker" didn't come from his heavy smoking—everyone in the house smokes—but from the fact that smoking in a pheasant group is a symbol, a violation of the rules, a protest that led to his expulsion from the group. Although, he does smoke more than anyone else in the house.